Also: I understand that Avast is a for profit business. That doesn't however mean that every Avast Free user is a potential customer. I think it is important to state that clearly. Some people just want a basic AV. Adding a ton of (sometimes buggy) features, and then pushing those hard, does nothing to entice someone that isn't looking for all that excess bloat. That doesn't win them over. Would you expect them to pay for functionality they will never use? They are content with the free version, because it does what they want it to do and nothing much more. And they would be fine if it was stripped from everything but shields. The very core essence of a traditional AV. And for that they oblige to view an occasional promotional offer, as long as it isn't overly intrusive. Sadly, Avast Free is moving further and further away from that basic concept with every new release, and from what I gather the paid versions do not fare any better. No doubt precisely because priorities seem to lie more and more with generating revenue, even if that comes at the expense of user satisfaction.
If you want to sell me software, build me a bare bones, fast, solid, reliable AV with great support. Call it Avast Core, or something. Price it reasonably and I might actually consider it, and recommend it to others.
